Utica's Rescue Mission feeds 850 on Thanksgiving

Friday

Nov 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2010 at 6:37 PM

About 200 volunteers delivered 500 meals to shut-ins and served turkey dinners to 350 guests in the dining room Thursday, according to the Rev. Bill Dodge, executive director of the Rescue Mission in Utica.

About 200 volunteers delivered 500 meals to shut-ins and served turkey dinners to 350 guests in the dining room Thursday, according to the Rev. Bill Dodge, executive director of the Rescue Mission in Utica.

Before opening the doors for the Great Thanksgiving Banquet, Dodge thanked and prayed with some of the volunteers, and told them: “This is not just an exercise to feed people’s hunger. It’s to give them hope.”

The day began with the Run to End Hunger, where the Rescue Mission received more than1,800 pounds of food.

That was followed by volunteers lining up to help prepare food or start delivering meals in shifts.

Then Christian entertainers Mark Bolos and Gabe Fisher conducted a service singing and playing their guitars just before the doors to the dining room were opened.

Greeting guests as they sat down were festive place mats, drawn and colored by children from Bradley Elementary School on Oxford Road in New Hartford, and from the Sunday School at Cornerstone Community Church on Plant Street in Utica.

Stan Ruzzola, of Utica, who was helping in the kitchen as well as serving condiments to guests, summed up the spirit that volunteers had.

“It feels great to give back," he said. " I was a little sluggish before I came here, a little down. You know what, I feel like a million dollars now.”

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